I’m pretty much done with this election

Honestly, please don’t talk to me about it and I’m going to actively try to avoid anything about it. It’s stressful and it’s just not good for my mental health. I was in Europe for 2 weeks and avoided all the news about it and felt happy, as soon as I got back to the US and saw what was going on and what was being said I wanted to an hero. This goes above and beyond the fact that both of these candidates are wildly unrepresentative of the population as a whole and more into the fact that it’s turning everyone into massive assholes. Perhaps that applies to me as well.

In the last weeks/months I’ve had friends tell me that they refuse to talk to me because of where I obviously stand on the candidates. I’ve had friends tell me that my personal opinion doesn’t matter because I’m a demographic. I’ve been called a bro and a baby by hundreds of people who I don’t know in anyway. I’ve watched people I respected call people they don’t know in anyway bros and babies and have lost that respect from me. I’ve had people tell me that they don’t think stupid people should be allowed to vote, and have had people tell me they now demand to know who someone is voting for before engaging in any social interaction of any kind with them. In a country where barely half the registered voters ever bother to cast a ballot, I’ve seen people tell others they are wasting their votes if they don’t vote for someone elses candidate of choice. I’ve found all of this to be terribly depressing.

The polls are horrifically close right now. Terrifying close. I’ve been sad to see Hillary supporters continue to beat up Bernie supporters because very, very realistically the only chance Hillary supporters have for their candidate to win is by convincing Bernie supporters that she deserves their vote. And excites them, and gets them to drag their friends to the polls. That isn’t happening as far as I can tell. Meanwhile, the Trump supporters are being friendly as ever. The other day I noted as much on twitter and over the following 6-12 hours I was flooded with gracious, kind replies from Trump supporters and insults and attacks from Hillary supporters. Many of which were deleted after the fact. Some of which were in direct message from people I thought were my friends. And I should note, I’ve been incredibly critical of Trump publicly. It’s appalling in my mind that things have gotten to where they are. But there they are, and I really have no interest in continuing to aid in the downfall of civil discourse so I’m out. We have confidential ballots in this country for a reason and I won’t be discussing this publicly any further.

Comments (2)

Sean, two thoughts occur to me as I read this:
1) Sometimes, the appropriate reaction to the state of the world is unhappiness and depression. Ignoring it in order to be happy doesn’t actually improve the world, it just a way for you to lie to yourself.
2) Disengagement is not a solution to the devolving nature of our discourse. The only way to improve the quality of our discourse is by engaging in it positively, with respect and kindness even when it’s not shown to us.

Both of these things I suggest are hard and admittedly bruising to ones positive outlook on life. There are very good reasons to do exactly what you are doing, especially if staying engaged is negatively impacting your relationships with those around you. I’m definitely not saying you’re wrong to pursue your chosen course of action, I’m just encouraging you and anyone reading this to stay involved and fight the good fight to improve our world and our civic discourse.

-Grant

P.S. And I fully acknowledge that I may be part of the problem with a comment like this, especially after not having any sort of interaction with each other for the past few years.

P.P.S. I only signed my name at the bottom of this so I could legitimately do a P.S.

Just when I got depressed by French politics…
This is so tiring. Everytime I see “friends” acting like jerks, calling names, being completely deaf to people’s words it kindda kills me a little inside. But I agree with Grant and believe that, even if that means these friends won’t ever talk to me again, it is worth saying/reminding them that these behaviours don’t help building a better world and that we must stay open and have the greatest of good in mind when we talk to each other…
Then again, that sounds very desperate…

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Hi, I’m Sean Bonner

I recently moved to Tokyo after 17 years in Los Angeles. I’ve run hackerspaces and blog networks, an art gallery, design firm and a record label. I’m one of the co-founders of Safecast, and currently act as Global Director. I’m an Associate Professor at Keio University, a Shuttleworth Fellow, an MIT researcher and sit on the board of CicLAvia.